The department is starting the process of developing a provincial housing legislation to prevent mushrooming and emergence of informal dwellings in the province. This is part of department efforts to halve the number of informal dwellings by 2014 in the province.
The proposed eradication of informal settlements policy focuses on the legal approaches to be used to evict people from informal settlements and to stop people building more shacks.
The legislation will improve lives of slum dwellers by looking at upgrading informal settlements in a participative manner with tenure security and basic services, provision of additional land to move affected people. It will also look into implementing legal action to stop illegal occupation of the land.
Consistent with the national MINMEC resolution that all provinces should formulate provincial legislation on the mitigation of mushrooming of informal settlements, the department has already crafted a green paper and is now consulting with all relevant stake holders including people residing in informal settlements about the proposed legislation.
The Human Science research Council has been commissioned to provide a thorough verification and quantification of informal settlements and back yard shacks in the province.
The study intends to look at people's views and perceptions of the state of housing delivery programmes, and to examine the existing capacity for the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the urban housing and informal settlement programmes in municipalities and districts across the province. The study by the science research council will be completed in March this year.
Issued by: Department of Housing, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
26 January 2010
